Read Ebook: Robinson Crusoe Told to the Children by John Lang by Lang John Adapter Defoe Daniel Chisholm Louey Editor Robinson Will Bennett Illustrator

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Ebook has 264 lines and 21617 words, and 6 pages

During the next five years nothing out of the common happened, and Robinson's time was mostly taken up with the getting of food, the yearly sowing and reaping of his crops, and the curing of his raisins. But towards the end of that time he made another attempt to build a boat, and this time he made one much smaller than the first, and though it took him nearly two years to finish, in the end he got her into the sea. She was not big enough for him to try to sail in to the far-off land that he had seen, and he used her only for cruising about the shores of his own island, and for fishing. In her he fixed a little mast, on which he rigged a small sail, made from a bit of one of the old ship's sails, and, using a paddle to steer with, he found that she sailed very well. Over the stern he fixed his big umbrella, to shade him from the sun, like an awning.

Eager to go all round the island, one day Robinson put a lot of food on board, and, taking his gun, started on a voyage. All went well till he came to the east end of the island, where he found that a ledge of rocks, and beyond that a sand-bank, stretched out to sea for eight or nine miles. Robinson did not like the idea of venturing so far in a boat so small, and he therefore ran the boat ashore, and climbed a hill, to get a good view of the rocks and shoals before going near them. From the hill, he saw that a strong current was sweeping past the sand-bank, which showed just clear of the water, and on which the sea was breaking; but he thought there was an eddy which would swing him safely round the point, without bringing him near the breakers. However, that day and the next, there was a good deal of wind blowing in the direction contrary to the current, which, of course, raised a sea too big for a small boat, so Robinson stopped on shore where he was.

On the third day it was calm, and he set off. But no sooner had he come abreast of the sand-bank than he found himself in very deep water, with a current running like a mill-race, which carried the boat further and further away from the land, in spite of all that he could do with his paddle. There was no wind, and the sail was useless.

Now he gave himself up for lost, for the harder he worked, only the further away seemed the boat to be swept. The island was soon so far off that Robinson could hardly see it, and he was quite exhausted with the hard struggle to paddle the boat against the current. He was in despair, and giving up paddling, left the boat to drift where she would. Just then a faint puff of wind touched his cheek, and Robinson hurriedly hoisted his sail. Soon a good breeze blew, which carried him past a dangerous reef of rocks. Here the current seemed to divide, the part in which he now was began to swing round towards the island, and he plucked up heart again, and with his paddle did all he could to help the sail. Robinson felt like a man who is set free after he has been told that he must die; he could almost have wept for joy. Miles and miles he sailed, steadily getting nearer to the land, and late in the evening at last he got ashore, but on the other side of the point that he had tried to round in the morning. He drew up his boat on the shore of a little cove that he found, and when he had made her fast, so that the tide could not carry her away, there amongst the trees he lay down, and slept sound, quite worn out.

In the morning he again got on board, and coasted along close inshore, till he came to a bay with a little river running into it, which made a very good harbour for the boat. Here he left her, and went on foot.

Soon he found that he was not far from a spot that he had once before visited, and by afternoon he arrived at the hut which he called his country-house. Robinson got over the fence by the ladder, as usual, pulling it up after him, and then he lay down to rest in the shade, for he was still very weary from the hard work of the day before. Soon he fell asleep. But what was his surprise in a little time to be awakened by a voice calling, 'Robin! Robin Crusoe! where are you?'

At first he thought he was dreaming. But still the voice went on calling:

'Where are you, Robin?'

Up he jumped, trembling with fright and wonder, for it was so long since he had heard any voice but his own that he fancied it must be something more than human that he now listened to. But no sooner had he risen than he saw, sitting on a tree near to him, his parrot, which must have flown all the way from Robinson's other house, where he had been left. It was talking away at a great rate, very excited at again seeing its master, and Robinson hardly knew whether to be more relieved or disappointed that it was only the bird that had called him.

ROBINSON SEES A FOOTPRINT ON THE SAND, AND FINDS TRACES OF CANNIBAL FEASTS

All this time Robinson had never gone near his canoe, but now the longing came on him to go over to where he had left her, though he felt that he should be afraid again to put to sea in her. This time, however, when he got to the hill from which he had watched the set of the current the day that he had been carried out to sea, he noticed that there was no current to be seen, from which he concluded that it must depend on the ebb and flow of the tide. Still, he was afraid to venture far in the canoe, though he stopped some time at his country-house, and went out sailing very often.

One day when Robinson was walking along the sand towards his boat, suddenly, close to the water, he stopped as if he had been shot, and, with thumping heart, stood staring in wonder and fear at something that he saw. The mark of a naked foot on the sand! It could not be his own, he knew, for the shape was quite different. Whose could it be?

He listened, he looked about, but nothing could he hear or see. To the top of a rising ground he ran, and looked all around. There was nothing to be seen. And though he searched everywhere on the beach for more footmarks, he found none.

Whose footprint could it be? That of some man, perhaps, he thought, who might come stealing on him out from the trees, or murder him whilst he slept.

Back to his house he hurried, all the way in a state of terror, starting every now and again and facing round, thinking he was being followed, and fancying often that a stump or a bush was a man, waiting to spring on him. That night he slept not at all, and so shaken was his nerve that every cry of a night bird, even every sound made by an insect or a frog, caused him to start with fear, so that the perspiration ran down his brow.

As day followed day, however, and nothing happened, Robinson began to be less uneasy in his mind, and went about his usual work again. But he strengthened the fence round his castle, and cut in it seven small loop-holes, in which, fixed on frames, he placed loaded muskets, all ready to fire if he should be attacked. And some distance from the outside of the fence he planted a thick belt of small stakes, so that in a few years' time a perfect thicket of trees and bushes hid all trace of his dwelling.

Years passed quietly, and nothing further happened to disturb Robinson, or to make him think more of the footprint that had frightened him so much. But he kept more than formerly to the interior of the island, and lost no chance of looking for good places to hide in, if he should ever need them. And he always carried a cutlass now, as well as his gun and a couple of pistols.

One day it chanced, however, that he had gone further to the west of the island than he had ever done before, and, looking over the sea, he fancied that he saw, at a great distance, something like a boat or a long canoe, but it was so far off that he could not be sure what it was. This made him determine that always in future he would bring with him to his lookout-place the telescope which he had saved from the wreck.

The sight of this supposed boat brought back his uneasiness to some extent, but he went on down to the beach, and there he saw a sight which filled him with horror. All about the shore were scattered men's skulls and bones, and bits of burnt flesh, and in one place were the remains of a big fire. Robinson stood aghast, feeling deadly sick. It was easy for him to know the meaning of the terrible sight. It meant that cannibals had been there, killing and eating their prisoners; for when the natives of some parts of the world go to war, and catch any of their enemies, it is their habit to build a fire, then to kill the prisoners and feast on their roasted bodies, eating till they can eat no more. Sometimes, if the man they are going to eat is too thin, they keep him, and feed him up, till they think he is fat enough.

Now Robinson knew all this, though he had never yet met any cannibals. And when he looked around he saw many bones lying about. They were so old that it seemed certain to him that all those years he had been living on an island which was a regular place for the natives to come to for such feasts. Then he saw what a mercy it was that he had been wrecked on the other side of the island, to which, he supposed, the cannibals never came, because the beach was not so good for them to land on.

Full of horror, Robinson hurried back to his house, and for almost two years he never again came near that part of the island where the bones lay, nor ever visited his boat. But all the time he kept thinking how he might some day kill those cannibals whilst they were at their feast, and perhaps save some of the poor men whom they had not yet killed. Sometimes he thought of putting powder below the place where they were likely to light their fire, and thus blow them up. But that did not seem a very good plan, because he did not want to waste his powder, and may be they might not light the fire on that spot, or they might not be near when it exploded. So he looked for a place where he could hide, near where the bones lay, and at last he found a good spot, from which he could watch them land. Near this spot were trees, through which he could creep up quite close to them, unseen, and so shoot without danger of missing. And it was his plan, that if he should happen to see the savages next time they came over for one of their horrible feasts, he would lie hidden till a good chance came, then shoot as many as he could with his gun and pistols, and afterwards with his cutlass rush upon those that were left. In this way he counted on being able to kill them all, even if there were as many as twenty, for they would be taken by surprise, and in the confusion might not be able to get at their spears and clubs.

When he had made this plan, Robinson was so pleased with it that for a time he could think of little else, and every day he would walk three miles to his lookout-hill, and watch through his telescope for signs of canoes coming over the sea towards the island. But after two or three months without result, he grew tired of it. Never a speck was to be seen on the water in any direction, and he began to go less and less often to the lookout-hill, and then gave up going altogether. Perhaps too, he thought, it was no business of his; the savages did not know any better, and were only doing what their fathers had taught them to do. It was the custom in these savage lands, and Robinson came to think, finally, that he had no right to interfere, unless they first attacked him. He argued also that if he did attack, and it chanced that he did not kill them all, that even only one got away, for certain that man would tell his tribe as soon as he got home, and they would come over in hundreds to murder Robinson in revenge for the death of those he had killed. And no doubt they would eat him, the thought of which was very dreadful.

On the whole, therefore, it seemed to him wisest to keep away altogether from that part of the beach, and to hide as well as he could all traces of any one living on the island. So, except to take away and conceal his boat, for more than another year he never went back to that spot. The boat, with her mast and sail and paddle, and a sort of little anchor he had made for her, he took to the farthest east end of the island. He was sure the savages would never come there in their canoes, because of the strong current that usually swept past the rocks; and he left her safely moored in a little bay, under the shelter of some high rocks.

More than ever now, Robinson kept to his two houses, and seldom left them, except to go to a deep valley he had found, through which ran a little stream of water as clear as crystal, and in which he now kept most of his goats, secured by a fence built all round the valley. He almost gave up firing his gun, lest it should bring the savages to find out the cause of the noise; and for the same reason he feared even to chop wood or to drive a nail. He was particularly careful, too, never to make a fire during the day, for nothing is so easily seen from a distance as smoke, and it would certainly bring the savages on him, if they were on the island, or anywhere near it.

So, when he needed a big fire, as he did often when burning the clay dishes and pots which he made, he would generally light it during the night. But sometimes in the day-time he would light it in the valley, where the smoke would not show so plainly against the sky or the dark trees, owing to the hollow being deep, and in the very middle of the island.

Presently, he began to make charcoal, by burning wood under earth and turf, and this charcoal he often took home to his house to use for cooking his food, because charcoal makes no smoke.

ROBINSON FINDS A CAVE; HEARS GUNS FIRED BY A SHIP IN DISTRESS

Now one day when Robinson was down in the bottom of the valley, cutting thick branches to burn for charcoal, he cleared away some undergrowth at the foot of a great rock, in which, near the ground, there was a sort of hole, or opening. Into this hole Robinson squeezed, not very easily, and found himself in a cave of good size, high enough, at least, to stand up in. It was quite dark, of course, to him coming in from the sunlight, and he turned his back to the entrance to feel his way further in, when suddenly, from the back of the cave he saw two great fiery eyes glaring at him. His very hair bristled with fright, for he could only think that it must be the Devil at least that he saw; and through the mouth of the cave he fled with a yell.

But when he got into the bright sunshine he began to feel ashamed of his panic, and to reason with himself that what he had seen must be only his own fancy. So, taking up a big burning branch from his fire, in he went again.

Before Robinson had taken three steps he stopped, in almost as great a fright as at first. Close to him he heard a great sigh, as if of some one in pain, then a sound like a muttering, as of words that he could not understand; again another deep sigh. Cold sweat broke out all over him, and he stepped back trembling, yet determined this time not to run away.

Holding his torch well over his head, he looked around, and there on the floor of the cave lay a huge old he-goat, gasping for breath, dying, seemingly of mere old age.

He stirred him with his toe to see if he could get him out of the cave, but the poor beast could not rise, and Robinson left him to die where he was.

Now that he had got over his fright, Robinson looked carefully about him. The cave was small, not more than twelve feet across at its widest, but he noticed at the far end another opening. This was so low down, however, that he had to creep on his hands and knees to get in, and without a better light than the burning torch, he could not see how far it went. So he made up his mind to come again.

Robinson had long before this made a good supply of very fair candles from the tallow of the goats he had killed, and next day he returned to the cave with six of these, and his tinder-box to light them with. In those days there were no matches, and men used to strike a light with a flint and steel, and tinder, which was a stuff that caught fire very easily from a spark.

Entering the cave, Robinson found, on lighting a candle, that the goat was now dead. Moving it aside, to be buried later, he went down on his hands and knees, and crawled about ten yards through the small passage, till at last he found himself in a great chamber, the roof of which was quite twenty feet high. On every side the walls reflected the light of his candle, and glittered like gold, or almost like diamonds, he thought. The floor was perfectly dry and level, even on the walls there was no damp, and Robinson was delighted with his discovery. Its only drawback was the low entrance; but, as he decided to use the cave chiefly as a place to retreat to if he should ever be attacked, that was in reality an advantage, because one man, if he had firearms, could easily defend it against hundreds.

At once Robinson set about storing in it all his powder, except three or four pounds, all his lead for making bullets, and his spare guns and muskets. When moving the powder, he thought he might as well open a barrel which had drifted ashore out of the wreck after the earthquake, and though water had got into it, there was not a great deal of damage done, for the powder had crusted on the outside only, and in the inside there was about sixty pounds weight, quite dry and good. This, with what remained of the first lot, gave him a very large supply, enough to last all his life.

For more than two-and-twenty years Robinson had now been in the island, and he had grown quite used to it, and to his manner of living. If he could only have been sure that no savages would come near him, he felt almost that he would be content to spend all the rest of his days there, to die at last, as the goat he found in the cave had died, of old age.

It was near the end of the month of December, his harvest time, and Robinson used then to be much out in his fields even before daylight. One morning, being anxious to finish cutting the crop, he had left his house even earlier than usual, long before the stars had ceased to shine or the first flush of dawn had showed in the sky, and as he crossed the higher lying ground between his castle and the cornfield, it chanced that he glanced in the direction of the sea.

There, on the shore, to his great horror on his own side of the island, he saw a fire burning, and he knew that this could only have been lit by the cannibals, who had once more landed.

Straight back to his castle he ran, and climbed hurriedly over the fence, pulling the ladder up after him. Quickly he loaded all his muskets and pistols, ready to defend himself to the last gasp, for he was sure that, if these savage men should happen to see his crops growing in the fields, they would know that some one was living on the island, and would never rest till they found him.

But when Robinson had waited some time without anything happening, he could bear the suspense no longer. Taking the telescope, he put his ladder against the rock where there was a flat ledge, and climbing up to this, pulled the ladder after him, and again resting it there, so climbed to the top of the rock, where he lay down and looked eagerly through the glass.

There were no less than nine savages, he saw, all sitting round the fire, cooking something, but what it was that they cooked he could not tell, though it was not difficult to guess.

After a time they began a kind of dance round the fire, all of them stark naked, and Robinson watched them at this for nearly two hours.

The cannibals had two canoes, which were hauled up on the shore, and as it was then low water he fancied they must be waiting for the tide to rise again. And so it turned out, for when the tide had been flowing for a time, they shoved off, jumped on board, and paddled away.

As soon as Robinson was sure that they were really gone, he went with all his speed to the hill from where, first of all, long ago, he had seen signs of savages, and looking through his glass, he saw three more canoes at sea, all paddling away from the island. On going down to the shore, there he saw a dreadful sight. Skulls, bits of flesh, and bones, lay about, and fresh blood was everywhere, hardly yet soaked into the sand.

This awful sight so horrified and roused Robinson that once more he determined, whenever the next chance came, to attack the cannibals, however many there might be, and kill all that he could. But always, for long after, he lived in great uneasiness, never sure that at any moment he might not be taken by surprise. Often he wished the time had come when he could run at them; for suspense is always harder to bear than any action, however dangerous.

But many months went by, and no savages were seen, and nothing disturbed Robinson except dreadful dreams, from which in the night he often started out of his sleep, crying out and struggling, thinking that the savages were trying to kill him.

About the middle of the following May, one day there came a very great storm, with much thunder and lightning and rain, and during the night the wind blew a perfect hurricane. Robinson was sitting listening to the roaring of the wind, and sometimes reading the Bible which he had found in one of the seamen's chests, for he could not sleep.

Suddenly he was startled by a kind of dull thud that seemed to shake the very air, such a thud as you might hear if something very heavy, but soft, fell on the floor of a room upstairs. And this noise was followed in about a minute by another thud. This time he could hear plainer, and he knew that the sounds were those of big guns fired at sea, and that they must come from some ship in danger, and signalling for help, perhaps to some other vessel.

Robinson ran out, and climbing up his ladder, got to the top of the rock in time to see the flash of another gun, away towards the reef of rocks at the end of the island.

If he was not able to help the people on board the vessel, they might yet, if they were saved, help him, so he collected all the dry wood he could get, and making a great pile, set fire to it, as a signal to the ship that there was some one on the island. And he was sure that the signal was seen, for as soon as it blazed up another gun was fired; then gun after gun, for some time.

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